Bruichladdich 21 Year Old Moon Import / Penny Black

Moon Import was founded by Pepi Mongiardino in 1980 and he bottled his first whisky in 1982. Always beautifully labelled, Pepi is acclaimed for designing the packaging for Moon Import bottles himself, often using images found in old books. These iconic designs, coupled with the quality of the liquid saw Moon Import steadily grow in popularity. The company is still going strong, and their early releases are some of the brightest gems in any whisky collection.

While most Moon Import releases are bottled as part of a specific series, this is a standalone produced to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Scotch malt whisky in 1989. The label depicts an old black stamp featuring Queen Victoria. Once upon a time the stamp cost just £0.01p.

Like its island neighbour Bunnahabhain distillery, Bruichladdich has traditionally been an un-peated single malt, mostly owing to its requirements by the blenders who owned it. The last of these was Whyte and Mackay, who eventually shut it down in 1995, deeming it surplus to requirements. They sold the distillery to Murray McDavid in 2001, who launched the peated Port Charlotte and heavily-peated Octomore single malts in 2006 and 2008. A recommissioned Lomond still also now produces the popular Botanist gin there.